10 Glasgow Gigs I Wish I’d Seen

WORDS: Christopher Sneddon (The Head Scratcher)

I've kindly been allowed to contribute a guest post to Rock Will Eat Itself. As RWEI is Glasgow-based and dedicated to heavy music I've tried to come up with an article suitably oriented. Considering I haven't seen that many gigs in Glasgow, I figured I'd do a list of gigs that I wish I'd been to instead. Here we go then...

In Scotland, most bands will play Glasgow over the other major cities in the country. Aberdeen is too grey and full of Aberdonians, Inverness is too far north and their dialect indecipherable to anyone south of the border, Dundee is, well it's Dundee... and Edinburgh is too busy building pointless tram lines to bother attempting to wrench the hottest bands free from Glasgow's iron shipyard grip.

Having lived up north for many years I didn't make it down south too often but since moving to Edinburgh in 2016 I've managed to hit a few more Glesgae Gigs: Jamie Lenman, The Pharcyde, Death From Above 1979, Flight of the Conchords & Black Peaks.

But what about all those gigs I haven't been to see in the Dear Green Place? The concerts I was too young to see, too skint to attend, couldn't change plans for or just plain didn't know about; some legendary, some current. 

These are the 10 Glasgow Gigs I Wish I'd Seen; obligatory playlist here.

1) Nirvana @ Queen Margaret Union, 30/11/91

Undeniably one of the noisiest three pieces to have ever existed, Nirvana defined a generation, inspired heaps of musicians and let’s be honest, they need no introduction.

In November 1991, the band descended on the Queen Margaret University Union with what would be their first and sadly their last performance in Glasgow. They were due to play again in 1994 but cancelled due to Kurt Cobain's ill health and a few weeks later, he was dead. You know the rest.

At 5 years old, I was too young to attend this gig. Probably too young to even listen to Nirvana without crying. When I was a bit older though, Nirvana, alongside other bands from that Seattle scene, helped develop my tastes for weird, heavy and chaotic music.

If I could travel back in time to see this gig I wouldn't hesitate, I mean who in their right mind would want to miss that?

Many years later, footage of the event was unearthed, which you can check out below.

2) The Mad Capsule Markets @ King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, 07/12/04

The Mad Capsule Markets are a Japanese punk band who mix hardcore, nu metal, electronics and punk rock in a dizzyingly special way.

Album OSC-DIS (their ninth! album) burst onto the scene in 1999 with relentless single 'RL(Pulse)' with its mad video game rescue mission music video. I was immediately hooked. I absolutely love OSC-DIS and played it to death in my late teens and still listen to it heavily to this day.

The Mad Caps played King Tut's in 2004 but this gig flew completely under my radar. I didn't even know it happened. By 2006, they were no longer a band. Is that Glasgow's fault? Who knows, but probably.

All I want to do is go back and hear stone cold classics like 'Tribe', 'Sugar Girl' and 'Pulse' and I can die happy. THAT video for 'Pulse' is below. 

3) Metallica @ Barrowland Ballroom, 10/10/96

Metallica playing the Barrowlands whilst on the Load tour cycle? Eh!? At this time, Metallica were already well on their way to becoming the biggest metal band there ever has been. That's where they sit now. Even after Lulu.

So why would I want to have gone to this gig? Why did I even bother asking that question? It's Metallica in a small venue, a band who have enormous sprawling classics like 'Master of Puppets' and radio bangers like 'Enter Sandman' (yeah I know we're all sick of it now, but back then it was huge).

I've seen Metallica live but that was at a festival where they were about a mile away and people were throwing pints of piss everywhere. It was still great but imagine all that boiled down into a fairly small room minus the piss splatters? That's life changing.

Once again, I was too young at only 10 years old. Maybe I could have snuck in with a fake moustache? Knowing Glasgow, I'd have been knocked back for wearing the wrong kind of trainers.
Some footage from a slightly bigger Scottish show is below. 

4) Rage Against The Machine & Tool @ Barrowlands Ballroom, 24/05/93

Do I even need to justify the inclusion of Rage Against The Machine in this list? No. Is there anyone out there that doesn't like Rage? No.

They played this gig in 1993, a time when only their self-titled album was released. That album has bangers like 'Bombtrack', 'Killing in the Name', 'Know Your Enemy', 'Wake Up', 'Bullet In the Head' and is just a genius, politically rebellious, masterpiece.

So imagine rocking up to the Barrowlands and being blown away by the snarling, cutting rap and spoken word of Zack de la Rocha and the explosive, mind-bending sonic wizardry of Tom Morello.  

I haven't even mentioned that Tool were supporting. F*cking Tool. 

Explosive RATM live footage below.

5) Pearl Jam @ Cathouse, 23/02/92

If you know me at all or if you've read my Alternative Brit Awards list, then you know I love Pearl Jam and that, despite being a fan since my teens, I only saw them live for the first time recently.

In 1992 Pearl Jam were touring the UK prior to the release of their debut album Ten which had taken America by storm the previous year with their Glasgow performance touching down at Cathouse.

Ten still remains Pearl Jam's most frenetic, rawest, heaviest and energetic release and still stands the test of time today. I can't even imagine how powerful this band would have been live in a small and intimate venue, still performing with youthful energy and with the world ready to fall at their feet.

Unfortunately, in 1992 I was only 6 years old and was too busy playing with dinosaurs to care about Pearl Jam. Even if I did, it's unlikely I would have been permitted entry, note from my parents or not.

This is a gig that would have been the rarest of opportunities seeing a group of musicians about to become the biggest band on the planet. Curiously, they didn't come back to Scotland for 8 years! Is that Glasgow's fault? Who knows, but probably. Here's some rough footage of their belated return:

6) Rodriguez @ Clyde Auditorium, 03/05/15

If you don't know who Sixto Rodriguez is then you need to watch the rather excellent documentary 'Searching for Sugarman'. The soundtrack is wonderful and essentially acts a greatest hits album.

He's a singer/songwriter who released some cracking Dylan-esque music in the USA in the 1970s but unfortunately went almost completely unnoticed and slipped back into relative obscurity.

Years later Rodriguez mysteriously became a household name in South Africa and following the documentary's successful effort to separate facts from fiction and track him down he began playing concerts internationally.

After seeing the documentary, I became obsessed with Rodriguez's unique brand of social commentary and often whimsical melodies. Despite this obsession, I was unable to go to any of his Scotland dates due to other commitments.

Maybe one of these days I'll get to see Rodriguez. Maybe in South Africa where the crowd goes this mental:

7) Zeal & Ardor @ King Tut’s 07/12/18

Zeal & Ardor are a band that I feel like I haven't stopped banging on about since I started The Head Scratcher. Their combination of harsh black metal riffs and harpy screams with bouncy underground railroad chants is just so damn infectious that they featured on my favourite albums of 2018 list and won best international act at The Alternative Brit Awards 2019. I've also shared countless live performances, gig dates and just generally fawned all over them on the socials.

At the moment there's no other band that I'm quite so desperate to see live and that's in no small part due to their incredible album, Stranger Fruit, and the high quality live material that's constantly being uploaded to the internet.

King Tut's is a very intimate venue and I can only imagine that Zeal & Ardor blew the effing roof off that night and I am so jealous of anyone and everyone who was able to go. For the record: I hate you all.

Ok, so I should quit whining. I haven't missed my chance to see Zeal & Ardor play in Scotland and probably haven't missed my chance to see them in a more intimate setting either. They're still a young band so they will be back soon, but it would have been cool to say I was there at one of their earliest shows.

You can watch an excellent live session of 'Blood on the River' below.

8) Culture Abuse & Gouge Away @ King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, 23/10/18

Culture Abuse at King Tut's being supported by Gouge Away!? These bands released two of my favourite albums of 2018 respectively: Bay Dream & Burnt Sugar. Well unfortunately for me, the date coincided with me flying out of the country. Bugger.

If you haven't heard of Culture Abuse, they're an alternative rock band with slacker vibes, punk rock sensibilities and vocals heavily inspired by The Ramones. Bay Dreams is nothing particularly new but it's just great. A perfect happy-go-lucky summer album.

Gouge Away are quite different. They're a hardcore band with an abrasive yet addictive vocal delivery with powerful riffs and bass lines combined with a somewhat poppy, punk rock vibe.

Two current bands I'm desperate to see and incredibly disappointed that I missed. Some live footage below.

9) Turnstile @ The Classic Grand, 24/10/18

I hadn't heard of Turnstile before their sophomore album Time & Space dropped early in 2018 but, much like Zeal & Ardor, they are a band I can't and won't stop talking about.

Turnstile effortlessly fuse the intensity of hardcore, the playfulness of punk rock and the inventive riffing of alt. rock to create a truly gleeful listening experience.  They also slam live.

This is yet another gig I missed due to being out of the country and it's now become pretty legendary. It's a hardcore show, so there's going to be stagediving, crowdsurfing, airpunching and spin kicks aplenty but things got so mental that security shut it down.

The house lights came on, the power to the instruments was cut but the crowd invaded the stage, roaring out the riffs themselves while the drums pounded.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this kind of mayhem, and I'd have lost my glasses within the first ten seconds, but it would have been a pretty incredible experience. Footage below. You mad Scottish bastards.

10) The Kills @ O2 ABC, 30/09/16

I've never seen The Kills live. I could cry. They played Aberdeen once when I was at Uni there. I didn't go. I didn't even know it was happening. Huge regrets.

They play weird, danceable, guitar and bass driven, funky rock and roll songs full of breathy vocals and electronic bloops and bleeps. They also borrow a great deal from bands like The Pixies which you can really hear on tracks like 'Last Day of Magic'.

Despite all the weird bits and pieces, their songs are often quite sparse and stark and range from light hearted to quite dark. Listen to 'Get Down' then 'Black Balloon'. You get the idea.

Despite those huge regrets mentioned above, I never made amends for not seeing The Kills. They've played Glasgow a bunch of times like the gig at the O2 ABC in 2016 (a fantastic venue that is sadly no more). Why didn't I go? I've no idea. Another gig I inexplicably slept on. Is that Glasgow's fault? Who knows, but probably.

You can watch The Kills play a full show at La Musicale below.

Ok, list over. Let us know about the gigs you missed out on that you wish you could jump in a Delorean for. Were you at any of those gigs on this list and if so, what were they really like?

Thanks for reading.

Peace.